Enchanted City
The Enchanted City is a floating island made up almost entirely of adamantine and connected to the Sauldanian land mass by an adamantine bridge called the Twelve-Mile Market. The city's history is largely unknown for certain, but most serious scholars agree that it was probably made by one or more of the Tytians and their children. The city's architecture is reminiscent of ancient Dal Udanian craftsmanship, which further supports the idea of Tytian construction due to the fact that Dal Udan's capital Mac Koenig was made by the Tytian Laelin and their architectural style grew out of Mac Koenig's designs. The city itself was in the possession of Duergar (Umbral Deep Dwarves) for almost 800 years and was only in recent memory liberated from their grasp by a force of Sauldanian soldiers led by Lord Van Roke and Lady Sorrein, in the year 1204 of the Sixth Era. The Enchanted City, before its downfall to the Umbral Deep hordes of Kurubar, was home to the Eight Grand Colleges of Magic. Each college had a tower along the floating city's massive adamantine outer walls. In the seige that claimed the city, the wizards were forced to flee and three of the college towers were destroyed. Since its reclaimation 42 years ago, the city has exploded in prosperity and now all eight of the Grand Colleges have been re-established and their towers repaired to working order. For his bravery and leadership in the conflict that brought the Enchanted City back under Sauldanian control, the last Regent Lord of Sauldan proclaimed Van Roke the new Regent Lord. As Van Roke's first order of business, he moved the small nation's capitol to the Enchanted City. Regent Lord Van Roke del Kamil has become one of the most beloved rulers in world history for his magnanimous rule and brilliant diplomatic and military leadership. He has, in a single generation, brought the tiny suffering nation into the forefront of world politics and made it an economic and military superpower to rival the Drachamist Principalities and Shadedale. The Enchanted City itself has become one of the most respected and awe-inspiring metropoli in Quesaloth and attracts the business and attention of the entire world. The city is a series of square tiers connected by vast stairways and- more recently- an arcane railway system that provides rapid transit for the city's citizens. There are five tiers leading downward to the City Core, the lowest level and only access point from which one can reach the Spiral Castle. The Spiral Castle is the seat of political power, a massive spire that reaches out past even the top tier and city walls. The castle has fifteen floors accessible through a series of teleportation circles and stairwells. The bottom floors act as office space and meeting room for the city and country's various bureaus and departments with the floors above that acting mostly as personelle quarters, banquet halls for state meetings and so on. The top two floors are Van Roke and his wife Sorrein's personal offices and living quarters. It is said that the Spiral Tower can hold the entire city's population if every square foot were to be utilized to such an end, but this seems more likely to be a modest hyperbole. The Twelve-Mile Market The adamantine bridge leading into the city is a massive covered market shrouded in wooden walls and ceilings reaching three or four stories at their highest. It is called the Twelve-Mile Market because that's precisely what it is. Those trying to capitalize on the city's amazing draw of tourists, travellers and what not have built an incredible expanse of bazaars and market stalls stretching the entire length of the bridge. Because until recently this was the only way into the city aside from the the seaside harbor, these markets do quite well for themselves. The various merchant guilds of the city have very carefully laid out the Twelve-Mile Market to maximize their sales by drawing potential customers in with rare and exotic goods from all over the world and slowly draining their wallets with more and more expensive (and interesting) things as the bridge draws closer to the city proper. Many goods can in fact only be found on the Twelve-Mile Market, to the exclusion of even shops within the city itself. The markets are always bustling and busy at every time of day and night and people interested in opening a stall or selling their wares must register with the merchant guild in charge of a particular part of the bridge in order to do so. They must rent out the space much like a shop owner must rent his building from the merchant guild or private firm who owns it. In recent years, with the addition of MacDuncan's arcane railway system that can speed travellers across the market directly into the city, the merchant guilds were furious and worried that it might harm their businesses. After much negotiation with the Codex Cabal (the guild who owns and runs the railway), the Merchants Union struck a deal making the railway have a series of regular stops along the bridge and an escalating price for each subsequent ticket. This encourages most people to still walk some or all of the way across the market despite the convenience of the speedy railway. The City of Guilds The Enchanted City is also called by many the City of Guilds, and for good reason. Within the city's massive shining walls are housed- by last census- 496 guilds of all varieties, descriptions and sizes. They range from merchant houses to craftsman unions to mage guilds and mercenary organizations. The guilds are managed and taxed by the Bureau of Guilds in the Spiral Castle, where all official inter-guild negotiations and dealings are handled as well. The guilds, in addition to their taxes, often donate money to various charities and special interest groups in order to curry favor and influence in as many different sectors of society as possible. Though each guild has its own hierarchical system, leaders and internal laws, many guildsmen jokingly refer to Regent Lord Van Roke as the "True Guildmaster", due to the fact that he as Regent Lord has absolute power over any guilds operating within his city. If he so chooses, he can dissolve a guild, deny it the right to operate in his country or levy other punishments or boons at his sole discretion. Twice in the brief modern history of the city have so called "Guild Wars" broken out. The first was two decades after the city's founding when a powerful merchant guild- the Sauldanian Trade Corporation- charged with illegal slave trading and illicit drug trafficking refused to be dissolved or accept its punishments for such activities. What started as a simple battle between the city's elite guard the Marshals and the STC's private soldiers erupted into a city-wide bloodbath when a domino chain of guild alliances drew a number of lines in the sand. Soon the chairman of the STC, a half elf by the name of Oen Korlash, questioned Van Roke's right to lordship and decided to try to take the city by force. The battle was won with help from the loyalist Grand Colleges of Magic and the STC's leaders were executed and their coffers seized to help repair the damage the One-Week War did to the city. The second Guild War broke out over similar circumstances during the Entropius War and was sparked in earnest when Lady Sorrein's network of spies discovered that one of the eight Grand Colleges- the Illuminated Academy of Zagyg- was in league with the Midnight Army. The Illuminated Academy ensorcelled many of the common folk and other guilds with a series of massive spells designed to sew chaos, and in this they were very effective. The guilds affected by the Academy's magic thought that Van Roke was seeking to steal their holdings and dissolve their operations and a series of loose alliances formed in order to stop this from happening. Many of the other Grand Colleges and their mages were trapped in their towers by clever spellcraft by the Illuminated Academy and were unable to come to the Regent Lord's aid this time. Eventually, the combined forces of the Marshals and the unaffected loyalist guilds managed to put down the fighting and a cadre of powerful mages managed to escape the Academy's traps and helped to push back the Illuminated Academy and defeat the spells of madness they'd cast upon the city's denizens. The city is to this day still recovering from this incident and the Illuminated Academy of Zagyg's eastern tower has remained magically sealed from the inside. All attempts to enter have failed, even by the hand of Archmage Arcturus himself.